Do you live by a to-do list, as I do? Isn’t it true that everyone is busy these days? When was the last time someone said, “I don’t have enough to do!”? It’s far more likely to hear people talk about how much they have to do and how far behind they are.

Given our very busy lives, here’s an urge we need to resist:

Resist the urge to do shoddy, careless work just to get it done!

It feels good to check off those duties on your list and sigh that sigh of relief because you got something done! I love it when I can look back on my day and say, “Way to go, Mary; you got lots of stuff done today.” But sometimes I find I so want to get things off my list I can resort to doing a half-way job just to get it done.

A simple motto I often repeat to myself is “Do it right and do it now.” Doing something right the first time eliminates mistakes and having to go back and re-do it later. In the long run it is a time saver to do it right from the get-go. And of course, doing it now eliminates that horrible habit of procrastination.

I think this urge to get things done is especially strong when we face something we don’t really want to do—one of those jobs we’d gladly give up if we could.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might (Ecclesiastes 9:10).

This should be a hallmark in the life of every Christ-follower—that we do our work with all our might. Do you have that kind of reputation where you work? You may not be the fastest or the smartest person on the job, but you can always be the hardest worker, the one who truly strives to do the job well, even the parts of the job which are not much fun!

Shoddy work done without attention to details is one of those urges we all need to resist—no matter how busy we are or how much we may not want to get a job done.